EDITORIAL - Did Lukus Glenn have to die?

from The Oregonian


None of us on the outside knows enough to understand why Washington County sheriff's deputies killed 18-year-old Lukus Glenn outside his house early Saturday morning.
By his family's account, Glenn was drunk, despondent and destructive, smashing car windows outside their Garden Home area house. He brandished a knife, which he held against his own throat.

In hopes of getting him calmed down, his mother called 9-1-1, which sent two deputies and a Tigard Police officer to the house.

The sheriff's office said later Saturday that the deputies ordered Glenn to drop the knife, but he refused. The official account said the officers fired bean-bag rounds at him, but Glenn was unfazed. And when he turned to re-enter his house, they shot and killed him. Their bullets penetrated the bedroom of Glenn's grandmother, but missed her.

Law officers usually are the first to enter volatile scenes, in an effort to keep the public safe. When things go well, they subdue disturbed people with no violence, and then the professional caregivers step in. But in this case, they shot and Glenn died without getting the professional help he clearly needed.

Did it have to end this way? Did the officers have other choices? How much did they know about Glenn before they arrived? How had their training prepared them for the scene?

And would anybody have been hurt if his mother hadn't called 9-1-1?